A couple of weeks ago, we blogged about the best art party in Charlotte – Studio Party 16 at McColl Center for Art + Innovation. This place McColl Center is truly a unique contemporary art center, unlike anything else in Charlotte. Not only do they have their family-friendly Open Studio Saturdays once a month, where kids of all ages get to meet artists and make art, but they also run a renowned Artist-in-Residence program. This program brings artists from all around the world to Charlotte, while also nurturing the vibrant local and regional arts community. Artists from Cuba, Egypt, and New Zealand (just to name a few) have been Artists-in-Residence at McColl Center, along with visiting artists from New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, Anchorage, and more cities across the country.
Studio Party 16, happening THIS Saturday, April 16 from 7-10 PM, is a fundraiser gala for McColl Center and their Artist-in-Residence program. The event is also a contemporary art sale featuring works from over 40 local, regional, and national Alumni Artists-in-Residence. Studio Party 16 offers a great opportunity to grow or begin your art collection, at an affordable price point, while also supporting the artists and McColl Center (who split the proceeds from each art sale).
Here are a few of the artists, all of them Alumni Artists-in-Residence, that will have art for sale at Studio Party 16:
Anne Lemanski, 2015 Alumna Artist-in-Residence
Anne Lemanski brings an innate curiosity about nature and our complex relationship to the natural world into exquisite relief. The collages she created during her McColl Center residency, and has continued to create since, have been breakthrough works for the artist. Lemanski lives in Spruce Pine, NC.
Carlos Estévez, 2016 Artist-in-Residence
Born in Cuba and now based in Miami, Carlos Estévez has focused his residency at McColl Center on the development of assemblages and ceramics to create a metaphor between the earth and the sky, and matter and the spirit. He has also worked closely with patients at the Levine Cancer Institute of Carolinas HealthCare System, in the Integrative Oncology Unit, to introduce them to the world of art and complement the medical services they are already receiving. Estévez believes: “Like water and air, art is the purification of the human spirit; it can heal, and definitely change people’s lives.”
Elizabeth Lasure, 2014 Alumna Art Teacher-in-Residence
Forever curious, Elizabeth Lasure finds what matters most is to be present in the moment. A trained potter, she finds that working in clay is demanding, requiring both physical strength and careful manipulation. She prefers working with porcelain because of its soft, translucent qualities. Lasure is also an art teacher at Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools.
Isaac Payne, 2011/2012, Alumnus Artist-in-Residence
Isaac Payne creates drawings that come from one’s relationship to architecture as well as estrangement from, and connection to nature. Payne exhibits nationally (recently in New York), teaches at CPCC, and lives in Charlotte.
See the work of these artists and many more at Studio Party 16 on Saturday, April 16 from 7-10 PM at McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Uptown Charlotte. Buy tickets and get more information at http://mccollcenter.org/studio-party.
For more information on the McColl Center:
McColl Center for Art + Innovation
721 N Tryon ST
Charlotte, NC 28202
(P)704-332-5535
facebook: www.facebook.com/McCollCenter
instagram: #mccollcenter
twitter: @McCollCenter
